Coleman & Horowitt LLP article on AB 617 was published in the Winter Issue of the Association of Environmental Professionals Environmental Monitor.
Showing posts with label ab 617. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ab 617. Show all posts
Friday, January 4, 2019
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
OEHHA has Proposed Amendments to Warning Regulations to Clarify the Definitions of Registered Agent and Actual Knowledge
The changes relate to two mains topics:
The first
is to clarify the definition of a Registered Agent for the purposes of providing notice of the Prop 65 requirements. These changes were required as manufacturers and distributors needed clarification as to the definition of a Registered Agent for the purposes of allowing the transmittal of notice requirements to downstream transferees that is now permitted to transfer responsibility for warnings under the 2016 regulations.
The changes add language to the relevant provisions of the regulations that an authorized agent is the authorized agent for the business to which they are selling or transferring the product.
This clarifies that the upstream entities need only to give the notice to their immediate downstream customers, which has been a question for entities attempting to comply with the 2016 regulations:
(b)
The manufacturer, producer, packager,
importer, supplier, or distributor of a product
may comply with this article either by providing
a warning on the product
label or labeling that satisfies
Section 25249.6 of the Act, or
by providing a written
notice directly to the
authorized agent for the business to which they are
selling or transferring the product or to
the authorized agent for a retail seller
who is subject to Section 25249.6 of the Act, which:
(1) States that the product
may
result in an exposure
to one or more listed
chemicals;
(2) Includes the exact name
or description
of
the product or specific identifying information for the product
such as a Universal Product Code or other
identifying designation;
(3) Includes all necessary
warning materials such as
labels, labeling, shelf signs or
tags, and warning language for products sold
on the internet, that satisfies Section
25249.6 of the Act; and
(4) Has been sent to the
authorized agent for the business to which they are selling or transferring the product who
is subject to Section 25249.6
of the Act or to the authorized
agent for the retail seller, and the manufacturer, producer, packager, importer, supplier,
or distributor has
obtained confirmation electronically or in
writing of receipt
of the
notice.
(c) If the manufacturer, producer, packager, importer,
supplier, or distributor
of a product is complying
with this section by providing a written notice directly to the authorized agent for the
business to which they are selling or transferring the product who
is subject to Section 25249.6
of the Act or to the authorized
agent for the retail seller:
(1) Confirmation of receipt of the notice must be received electronically or in writing,
and must be renewed, and receipt of the
renewed notice confirmed electronically or in writing
by the authorized agent for
the
business to which
they are selling or transferring
the product who is subject to Section 25249.6
of the Act or the authorized
agent for the retail
seller's authorized
agent no later than February 28, 2019, then
annually thereafter during the period
in which
the
product is sold in California
by the retail seller.
(2)Where a business has not designated an authorized agent, the manufacturer, producer, packager, importer, supplier,
or distributor may serve the notice on the legal agent for
service of process
for the business.
(b) The manufacturer, producer,
packager, importer, supplier, or distributor
of a product
may comply with this article either by providing
a warning on the product
label or labeling that satisfies
Section 25249.6 of the Act, or
by providing a written
notice directly to the
authorized agent for the business to which they are
selling or transferring the product or to
the authorized agent for a retail seller
who is subject to Section 25249.6 of the Act....
(f) For purposes
of subsection
(e)(5), “actual knowledge” means specific
knowledge of the consumer
product exposure with
sufficient specificity for the retail
seller to readily identify the product that
requires a warning, and that is
received by the
authorized agent
or a person whose knowledge
can be imputed to the
retail seller from any reliable source.
If the source of this knowledge
is a notice served pursuant to
Section 25249.7(d)(1) of the Act, the
retail seller shall not be deemed
to have
actual knowledge of any consumer
product exposure that is alleged
in the notice until five business days after the retail
seller receives a notice that provides
a description of
the product
with sufficient specificity for the retail seller to readily identify
the product in accordance with
Article 9, section
25903(b)(2)(D).
The actual knowledge provision is in turn significant because it relates to the instances when a retailer becomes responsible for the warning.
(e) The
retail seller is responsible for providing the warning required by Section
25249.6 of the Act for a consumer product exposure only when one or more of the
following circumstances exist:
(5) The
retail seller has actual knowledge of the potential consumer product exposure
requiring the warning, and there is no manufacturer, producer, packager,
importer, supplier, or distributor of the product who: (A) Is a “person in the
course of doing business” under Section 25249.11(b) of the Act, and (B) Has
designated an agent for service of process in California, or has a place of
business in California.
OEHHA will receive comments by 5:00 p.m. on December 31,
2018. All comments will be posted on the OEHHA website at the close of the
public comment period.
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Issues in Air Quality
This memorandum was prepared for the
Manufacturers Council of the Central Valley
Coleman
& Horowitt, LLP
Attorneys
at Law
The
following are the items that were identified that may be of interest to the
MCCV Working Groups with respect to Air Quality Issues.
1. AB
617
AB 617 is the statute that was passed last year along with the
revisions to the Cap & Trade and emphasizes enhanced source monitoring in
certain identified communities. With respect to the Valley, South Fresno and
Shafter have been identified.
2.
Community
Steering Committee Applications
The SJVAPCD is considering hiring third party Service
Providers to assist in developing the steering committees for the communities
identified in the initial round. This is an exerpt of the related staff report:
To ensure that this new and extensive community engagement
process is successful and meets your Board’s expectations, the use of services
to assist the District may be necessary. Given the short timeframe under state
law, District staff is seeking your Board’s approval to contract with
experienced service providers to assist in the facilitation of these steering
committees and with community outreach and participation.
3. CARB
October Board Meeting- October 25-26, 2018
In particular the cap and trade program is being considered,
this is from a letter that was circulated to the business community urging
participation at the CARB meeting and sign on to a group letter.
Last year, the California
Legislature passed legislation (known as AB 398) to renew the state’s
cap-and-trade program. The goal is to reduce carbon emissions, while also
containing costs for California families. The California Air Resources Board
(CARB) will be implementing the policy. To be sure that CARB follows the
legislation passed, they are to “avoid adverse impacts on resident households,
businesses, and the state’s economy.” There is an indication that CARB is
ignoring this direction and proposing to increase the costs that will impact
the economy. There is an effort by industry to get people to this meeting and
sign on to the following:
California Air Resources Board
10001 I Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Board Members,
As a group of concerned
businesses and consumers in California, we are united in strongly opposing
specific provisions of the proposed amendments to the regulation for
administering Cap-and-Trade for the period of 2020 to 2030. Specifically, we
believe the proposed Price Ceiling would fail entirely at its statutory purpose
of controlling costs that are placed on households, businesses, and the overall
economy.
Assembly Bill 398 (Garcia,
2017) directs the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to include a Price
Ceiling in the proposed regulation to control the prices of allowances. When
setting the Price Ceiling, the legislation specifically directs CARB to “avoid
adverse impacts on resident households, businesses, and the state’s economy.”
This important and straightforward direction reflects a widespread and
bipartisan recognition that the costs of climate regulations must be managed in
order for the regulations to be successful and avoid driving California
consumers, workers, and businesses into insolvency.
Unfortunately, CARB is
proposing to set a Price Ceiling that is nearly twice as high as experts
recommend. This proposal threatens to impose unaffordable, runaway costs on all
Californians, and violates the legislative directions to “avoid adverse
impacts.” This includes adding up to $1.08 to the cost of a gallon of gasoline,
as well as potential cost increases on energy, food, and other necessities.
These cost increases will
dramatically impact California consumers, workers, and businesses, who already
contend with some of the highest costs of living in our nation.
For these reasons, we are in
strong opposition to the lack of proper price-containment provisions in the
proposed amendments. We ask CARB to consider an approach to cost-containment
that is more aligned with the Legislature’s direction in AB 398.
Thank you for your
consideration.
4. SJVAPCD
October Board Meeting- October 18, 2018
5.
CAC
Meeting
A. PM
2.5 Plan
i.
District’s Summary
Update on District PM2.5 Planning Efforts – Sheraz Gill,
Deputy APCO, provided an update on the status of the District’s PM2.5 planning
efforts. For the past three years, the District and the California Air
Resources Board (CARB) have led an extensive public process to develop an
attainment strategy to address multiple federal PM2.5 standards. This public
process has included multiple workshops and public meetings, Public Advisory
Workgroup meetings, and regular discussions at Citizens’ Advisory Committee and
Environmental Justice Advisory Group meetings. Through the public engagement process,
the District and CARB have identified a comprehensive list of potential new regulatory
and incentive-based measures to achieve significant emissions reductions from
both stationary and mobile sources. Modeling conducted by CARB as part of the SJVUAPCD
Governing Board planning process demonstrates that the Valley will attain all
three PM2.5 standards by their respective deadlines. The District posted the
draft plan for public review on August 31, 2018. The District and CARB are
working to finalize the remaining elements of the plan prior to posting the
final draft of the plan for public comment ahead of the November 2018 Governing
Board meeting where the plan is scheduled to be considered for adoption.
ii.
Recommendations to the Board from Subcommittee
Due to the breadth and complexity of the plan, CAC members
felt additional time to review and analyze the plan was necessary prior to
making any recommendations to the Governing Board. To allow for this time, the
CAC voted to convene a meeting of the full committee on November 6, 2018, to
consider adopting recommendations for the Governing Board on the District’s
2018 PM2.5 Plan. To facilitate an enhanced review of the plan, CAC members
voted to create an ad hoc subcommittee which will meet in October 2018 to
review the plan further and report back to the CAC at the November 2018.
6 Additional Issues of Interest
A. Dairy
Sustainability Summit
Showcase California’s world-leading achievements in
sustainable dairy farm practices and the role dairy plays in the global food
system Explore new ways for dairy farmers to continue improving environmental
sustainability, develop new business opportunities, and reduce on-farm costs Highlight
information, technology, and services that can support dairy farmers’ efforts
to meet continuing challenges, further improve efficiency, and ensure economic
and environmental sustainability. https://www.cadairysummit.com/.
B. SNAPS
Excerpts from an Industry
Email, this may be a foreshadowing of the AB 617 program.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB)
is developing a project to better characterize air quality in communities near
oil and gas operations. The Study of Neighborhood Air near Petroleum Sources
(SNAPS) includes limited-term, intensive air quality monitoring with a particular
focus on production facilities. This project can also provide valuable
information to support the Community Air Protection Program (CAPP), formed
pursuant to AB 617.
Under SNAPS, candidate communities for
monitoring are identified based on their proximity to oil and gas wells, and
from public suggestions. CARB staff will locate stationary trailers equipped
with state-of-the art monitoring technologies in communities for up to four
months to determine air quality. The trailers are capable of measuring toxic
air contaminants (TACs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter
(PM), metals, and criteria pollutants. An analysis of available air pollution
measurements, local characteristics, public input, and potential partnerships
in each candidate community will help to prioritize trailer deployment. Staff
will analyze the air quality measurements obtained through trailer monitoring
to characterize exposures to measured pollutants. Where appropriate, the Office
of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) will perform a more in-depth
health analysis, potentially including risk assessment. Some air monitoring
data will be posted in real-time and CARB will publish a complete analysis of
results in separate reports for each site.
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Comments on AB 617 Blueprint
Friday, June 22, 2018
AB 617: San Joaquin Valley APCD Identifies Fresno and Bakersfield Under Community Monitoring
As part of AB 617 the local air districts are to identify preliminary and final lists of recommended communities to CARB. The initial list of communities was identified in April, and a more refined list will be provided in July. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will publish lists in August and finalize them in September.
The SJVAPCD in the preliminary round of identifying communities provided a laundry list of disadvantaged communities that are effected by the large transportation corridors located in the Valley. http://www.valleyair.org/community/documents/Initial-2018-Community-Recommendations.pdf In this next round the District has specifically identified South Central Fresno, and North Central Bakersfield.
AB 617 requires CARB to develop a
monitoring plan for the state, and then select, based on the plan, the highest
priority locations to deploy community air monitoring systems. Once the
communities and relevant emissions are identified, various options for control
measures are to be proposed.
By July 1, 2019, air districts would be required to
deploy monitoring systems in the selected locations, with data to be published
on the CARB website. Air districts would also be authorized to require any
stationary sources that emit air pollution that materially affect the selected
location, to deploy a fence-line monitoring system. Once the communities are identified an advisory committee working with the local district can identify control measures, enhanced enforcement, land use controls and other methods to reduce emissions affecting the community.
Additional locations would be selected to deploy community air monitoring systems on an ongoing basis by January 1, 2020, and every year thereafter as appropriate based on the monitoring plan.
. Additional locations would be selected to deploy community air monitoring systems on an ongoing basis by January 1, 2020, and every year thereafter as appropriate based on the monitoring plan.
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